It didn’t matter and results tend to vindicate, or not, team selections.
The industrious Daisuke Matsui did much good for the Samurai Blue and anyway, they had Honda.
His cool finish at the far post when two Cameroon defenders tried and failed to reach the same ball, what just what Japan needed.
There were a number of hairy moment after the break but not too many.
The players fought hard to ensure that was the case.
In the back of their minds would have been the capitulation to Australia four years earlier.
They were determined not to let that happen.
With six minutes remaining however, at about the same point in the game as Tim Cahill equalized in Kaiserslautern, a fierce shot from Stéphane Mbia , the best of the tournament so far, though that is not saying much, bounced back from the bar and Japan breathed again.
As well as oxygen, belief began to flow through their bodies.
